TKP: Gamer's Lounge (Feb edition)

Video games come up fairly frequently in our discussions, but it's always in somewhat of a restricted manner (thread about specific game, console, generation, or even in threads about recruiting or whatever, etc)

I get damn tired of having to track down a comment someone made about a particular game by looking through various threads... So..

Comments

I have so much nerding I want to do, but life wont let me! Currently making my way though KHIII. So far its everything I hoped it would be, critics reviews be damned. I actually enjoy the gummi ship missions in this one too. Fight me.

I'm playing it EVEN SLOWER. Been super busy at work and life at home with a 4 and 2 year old is not very "video game" friendly.

I am loving the game. It's part nostalgia, part well put together game. I don't mind the cut-scenes, although they can go on a bit long. The story-line is just so intertwined and complex, the game so far is doing a good job a putting it all together.

Man....i came into this not really knowing what to expect, to be honest. I completely loved the first game, ..the second game? Apparently I don't remember shit about it. Characters, story, ...nothing. Except that you start out as Roxas...that was a simulation..??

Anyway, I HATED Olympus in KH3...it felt rushed, and there were a fuck ton of cut scenes. ...then I had an absolute BLAST in Toy Box. That was perfectly done. Outside of that...I've been underwhelmed.

Maybe it's because I'm a grown man, (Started the game when I was what...16?) ..but...the voice acting is kinda...bad. ..the writing and dialog are kind of...bad. ...and this game is low key corny. lol.

Like, I'm not saying the game is bad...but I definitely wouldn't say it's Game of the Year content. I haven't been speeding through the game...but...I'm gonna give it a break and come back to it eventually. I still have to beat Resident Evil 2 remake anyway...

Like with Final Fantasy, all Square Enix games are pretty corny and have some questionable writing/voice acting... and then you throw the ridiculousness of Disney properties in there and you have the recipe for supremely corny content. I love it though.

I wouldn't call FF content corny. Maybe in the recent games 13-15 because I'm not as familiar with those, but the early FF games have very solid/great storylines and deal with some really important themes.

For example, I was in 3rd grade (I think) when I played through FFX the first time and the primary themes of that game are moral dilemmas (do the ends justify the means?) of sacrifice for the greater good, religious corruption through connected church and state, suppression of technology through fear mongering, governing bodies lying to the masses for control, the consequences of racism, etc. It undoubtedly played a pretty huge role in how I developed and thought about the world as a kid. Having played through it many times in high school, and college as I got my friends to play through it, I think it has actually aged really well. That said, FFX certainly has some corny dialogue and voice-acting as it was one of the first games (period) to feature that. The laughing scene in Luca is... pretty infamous for being horrible, though I just find it funny and not particularly impactful of anything.

Yeah I'm not talking about the themes in as much as the dialogue choices and voice acting. And plenty of people choose to play those in their original Japanese dub because of it.

Don't get me wrong, I love SE games for the most part, but their games can crank up the cheese, at least in English. FFXV was almost as bad as the Kingdom Hearts series (in which I expect copious amounts of cheese).

Man, I cant say I didn't enjoy FFXIII, but wow did it piss me off. 100%ed XIII-2 to get the secret final cut scene, which was painful in and of itself for such a convoluted storyline, and instead of an actual cut scene we basically get the main antagonist making fun of us for even going through the trouble. I didn't even bother with XIII-3 and I am normally a ravaging competionist

Honestly if you can find the time, play XIII-3. It was actually my favorite of that series. The story was really interesting and they made some changes to the battle system and how you explore that I thought were cool.

The overall "theme" might not be corny... but every game in the series that I've played (which is admittedly a short list) has had some sequences that have been either pure RPG tropes or just corny as hell. The Don Corneo (no pun intended) storyline from FF7 comes to mind...

I completely loved the first game, ..the second game? Apparently I don't remember shit about it. Characters, story, ...nothing. Except that you start out as Roxas...that was a simulation..??

I have similar feels. KH1 just worked for me, but 2 didn't for some reason.. Looking back I remember the intro where you're playing as Roxas and I still think that's my favorite part of the game. They spent an entire tutorial giving you a character to play that when I finally got to the Sora/Donald/Goofy bit I was a bit disappointed.

I found TKP after two rails from TOTS then walking back to my apartment and re-watching the 2012 Sugar Bowl. I woke up the next day with this username.

If one has never interacted with the KH franchise before, what is the best path for jumping into the series? Start at the current one (KHIII)? Play one of the older versions? Watch youtube cut scene compilations?

If you can find Kingdom Hearts: The Story so Far - it has all the games leading up to KH3. If not, you should be able to find them fairly cheap. I think they've got a lot of bundles out there, you just gotta look.

Definitely do not start at KHIII. It would be like trying to jump straight into Metal Gear Solid 4 (which I did....)

I would either start at KH or BBS if you wanted to go (somewhat) chronologically, as far as actually playing a game. Otherwise you could start ALL the way at the beginning and watch the movies for KH Back Cover

I tried going back and playing MGS1 when I bought my PS3, instead of jumping straight into MGS4, but.... that game doesn't seem to have aged well for me. I got to one point about 10 hours into the game and got stuck, spent hours trying to get past whatever room it was to no avail. Never have tried to go back to it.

I probably need to play it again. Around the time 4 came out, I found a PS2 bundle with MGS1, 2, and 3. I don't remember having trouble getting around, but I also wouldn't put it past myself to just look up what the hell I am supposed to do if I got stuck

Play the current version. They "explain" the story of the previous versions but even playing those games it's completely bonkers so don't worry about the story. I say this version because it's really fun and readily available (on two different systems).

I'm currently in the endgame and I'm still having a bunch of fun achievement hunting. Normally after I beat a game I need some time away from the game before I get back into it if I even do. Not the case for KH3. There is a bunch of stuff you can do after you beat the game and I'm digging it

Hell yeah that's great to hear. I am definitely not going to want to be done with the game once I complete the story. Although at the rate I am going its going to take me months. The last 3 times I have picked up the game I still haven't gotten all the way through the Kingdom of Corona

I did a group project for the masters I'm getting and we Implemented a Kingdom Hearts AR game (via phone for free and headset for upgrade) in Disney Parks. Kind of like a. AR Version of GTA in Dinsey Parks, with achievements to unlock and goals and objectives. It also performed crowd control and was interactive during the rides. It also would market certain stores in the park as real life micro transaction locations.

One of the big problems Disney has is people only come once a year or at all even when they have yearly passes. The game was a reason to get people to come back during off peak days and recoup some of the missed revenue now that they have dynamic pricing.

Apex Legends is amazing for a free game, and I don't typically like the Battle Royale genre. Gonna be playing that until I potentially get Anthem, as I did enjoy the demo last weekend immensely, and I think their direction sounds promising as of right now.

I haven't played Apex Legends yet, but I love Respawn. Titanfall 2 is I think my favorite shooter ever; it's just so smooth and fast-paced. Oh and nothing beats the feeling of crushing puny pilots while in a titan.

Awesome, I'll accept when I log back in tonight. I'll warn that I'm not very good at the BR scene yet, but I can at least stay with the squad and ping (that system is great, other games take note) and can handle shotguns at the very least.

I think Apex has some great features -- the drop in mechanics are great, quick queues, reasonable looting spread and a great looting system (pubg, sorry, I'm not here to memorize compatibility).

I like the idea of the combat, but as a long time FPS player I'm shook that I haven't grokked it yet. It feels like it's missing a smoothness, or visibility factor. I'm fine for CS or overwatch but struggling to get kills here. I'm going to stick with it because it's still fun, but that'll pass if I can't get over the learning curve I'm missing.

Yeah i have two friends that i play almost all my video games with. We played fortnite for a bit, but usually just did it as a squad of 3. Really hampered our ability to win. Apex is awesome though. I love that its first person and that their isnt any building/resource collection involved. The abilities are neat too.

What's impressive to me is that they have these different "legends" that seem to be extremely balanced on release. I can't think of anything I'd want them to adjust on any of them, nothing feels OP or useless.

The abilities are niche enough where it doesn't throw off play all together. Bangalore with the smoke/digital threat is downright dirty. I've had a ton of luck on Lifeline since you can pass up a lot of healing and horde shields.

I've been primarily a PC master race gamer for the past five years or so, but I bought myself a Switch for Christmas. Why didn't I buy one of these sooner?! I've mostly been playing Smash Ultimate, Pokemon Let's Go, and New Super Mario Bros U. I also picked up Stardew Valley (I played about 50 hours on PC around the initial release) and am completely addicted to it again. As far as upcoming releases, I'm looking forward to the new Animal Crossing and Pokemon later this year.

The Switch is an awesome console. I primarily play in portable mode. Civ VI is a great port if you're into that stuff, and most of my hours on the system have been devoted to Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Fantastic game if you're into JRPGs.

Of course Odyssey and BOTW are incredible games. I haven't picked up Let's Go yet but it's on my list.

I was a bit skeptical of Let's Go, as someone who has played at least one game from every generation except 3, since they were making a ton of changes to make it more accessible to casual players. But my brother got it, and I played it over Thanksgiving, and told my wife to put it on my Christmas list, and man... Let's Go Eevee might actually be my favorite game of the series so far.

Like, sure, the fact that you don't battle in the wild anymore is different, and it's even easier than before to get way over-leveled, but they made so many quality-of-life changes that I wish they'd included in Ultra Sun, which I'm still trying to play through.

I was also skeptical about the core game mechanic changes they made for Let's Go, but after playing through it I actually really enjoy them. It definitely feels less grindy than the original games. It's also a nice throwback to the first gen (I think it's a Yellow remake).

I bought BOTW, but it's definitely gonna be a while before I have time dive into it. I played a ton of Civ V on PC, so I might grab VI on the Switch when it goes on sale. One of my friends swears Xenoblade is the best game on the Switch, so I might have to get that as well. There are just too many awesome games with high replay value on the Switch right now.

I've tried a lot of the hero-based games over the years (LoL, Dota 2, etc) and could never get into it because the community was full of people yelling at each other for the dumbest reasons, but that was years ago. Overwatch came out in the same month as Battleborn, a game with a similar premise from the makers of the Borderlands series. We got Battleborn, thinking a smaller community would be better, but it was still fairly toxic, at least for the few months that you could actually find a game to play before everyone left to play Overwatch.

I guess I subconsciously decided not to even try Overwatch out, in part because I'd heard the community wasn't much different than what I'd come to expect from competitive games. But then last September my wife and I attended her friend's wedding, and both her friend and the groom convinced us to try it out. It has been waaaaaaaaay more pleasant than anything I'd previously expected, but until I saw that reddit post last week I never made the connection to Fortnite, but now everything makes more sense.

The worst part of online gaming is the other people. That, and I've found that if you don't jump into a community right away, especially with these sandbox shooters, the community becomes too good for anyone new to hop in and be able to really get accustomed to anything. I got turned off to all that crap with the CoD World at War and Modern Warfare 2 back in the day and haven't gone back since.

I didn't start playing Overwatch until almost 2.5 years after it was released, and probably only about 1-2% of my interactions with people have been negative, and Competitive mode has been surprisingly better than Quick Play.

Then again, this is the first time I've ever had a positive experience with a competitive online game, so maybe I've just gotten lucky over the last 3 months.

Right on, man. Good for you being able to admit something like that publicly with no shame at all. Respect. :-P

Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

I took the plunge and subscribed to Xbox Game Pass and it was a pretty solid choice. It's $10 a month ($120/year), so essentially as long as there are two games in there every year that I would otherwise buy, it's paid for itself.

Currently working on RDR2, NHL19, Forza Horizon 4, Sniper Elite 4, Ghost Recon Wildlands, and Banjo Kazooie.
Backlog of Starwars Battlefront II, Forza 7, Wolfenstein, Sea of Thieves, NBA 2k19, and Ryse. I'll probably pick up Shadow of the Tomb Raider when it comes to Game Pass as well. The first two were amazing games.

I was iffy at first, but they have a perpetual deal where you get the first month for $1, so I decided to give it a try and cancel before the second month if I didn't like it, but it ended up being really great. A ton of games on there that I've been wanting to play, but not interested enough to spend $50-60 on each of them so it really saves me a ton of money. There are about 200 games on there and they add more every once in a while.

Yea, I've got the app on my phone and made a list of everything I want to play at some point. Haha so far it has Shadow of the Tomb Raider, wolfenstein, doom, hitman, both Metro games, State of Decay 2, Ryse, Sea of Thieves, Zombie Army, and The Walking Dead Season 1.

RDR2 still takes most of my time, but it's nice having a few other things going for a change of pace sometimes.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider was quite excellent, HOWEVER, there is something wrong with the game that make it nearly unplayable, causing an incredible amount of lag and stuttering on screen. At first I thought it was just my machine, which, admittedly is a little older, but the steam forums are full of people with much higher end machines than I've got that have the same stuttering and haven't been able to find a fix 😑 Just a head's up.

game pass is so great. Playing out just 3 games a year garners efficient value, and the access to a wide set of games I wouldn't otherwise buy (gf drops into 2k19, sea of thieves) makes it an easy buy for me (disclaimer, msft employee).

Did you play the demo for Anthem? Knowing that wasn't the final build and there were optimization issues, I had a ton of fun. I LOVE that there's no PvP aspect because I personally feel it ruins the Destiny experience for me, and I'm happy to have a PvE only looter shooter.

Also 4 man max squads with matchmaking in everything. Both great for my situation.

As someone who's played all the Assassin's Creed games Origins really revived the series for me. They completely revamped the combat system (it's very Witchery now) and a lot of other details. Odyssey has been sitting unopened on my desk since Christmas but I hear it just improves on the success of Origins.

I just finished Odyssey. It really improves on Origins...a lot. I will say, though, if you are completionist, it's tough. There is SOOOOO much to do. At some point, I had to decide to stick to the main story line. I hit max level with about a third of the story left, and still probably have 100 or so missions I could do if I want to go back to it. That's not even counting the DLC.

Yea I did something similar with Origins. I had maxed out my level just over half way into the story. I'm somewhat of a completionist (all side missions, all locations, etc) but I was really close to skipping some of those flipping war elephants.

Heart of Stone is probably the best story of any expansion pack I have ever played, and Blood and Wine, while not as great of a story, has a TON of new content that I had more fun with than most full priced games I've ever bought.

From an expansion pack standpoint, some great ones include:
Those 2 from Witcher 3
Undead Nightmare for RDR1 (please god I would love for them to do a version of it for #2)
XCom2: War of the Chosen

I play on PS4 and so far I've been pretty hooked on Destiny / Destiny 2 since it launched in 2014 even with all the issues, but take breaks to play other things pretty frequently. I feel like the most recent "Forge" season has been kind of a let down, but Forsaken was a pretty sweet step for the franchise. Also I just had my first baby in December so it's been tough playing anything you can't pause. Other games I've really enjoyed with the PS4 are: Witcher 3, For Honor, Titanfall 2, Horizon Zero Dawn (haven't quite finished yet since KHIII released), and Kingdom Hearts III (I'm literally twice as old now as I was when KHII came out).

I'm PC only. Still need to finish Neir:Autonoma, and my steam library has too many good games I've either just started or not touched at all. I've got a couple of FF games, Bioshock Infinite, Portal, and the like all on my to-play list.

My problem is I hardly have time to play anymore, it seems, and when I do I play some lighter games like stardew valley or Rune factory on the DS (yeah I like farming games). When I do have time for more I always go back to old faithful, MechWarrior Online because I'm just a big Battletech nerd.

Yup I know who you are now. Lol. MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries was my jam in middle school/high school, but I didn't get into MechWarrior online until senior year of college and more so during grad school.

Some games I need to finish: Persona 5 (the final boss is frustrating), Octopath Traveler (the actual end game), Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 4 (close to finishing them but other stuff caught my attention).

At least the last couple years I got to finish Nicer Automata, God of War, Spider-Man, Breath of the Wild, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Tales of Berseria.

Burnt out on Overwatch competitive right now (I blame Brigitte), so started playing MechWarrior Online with my brother and trying to join a group that plays ARMA 3 with a Warhammer 40K mod.

"Oi! What's a Horkie"
"I am ya Grot!"

"Horkies were made for two fings foighten' and winnen'" - Horkie Warboss

"That Gritty git doesn't exactly look like a Horkie, but by Gork and Mork it acts like one!"-Random Horkie Boy

Just finished trying to join the ARMA 3 Warhammer 40K Mod group with 1 hour of advanced training and a 3 hour operation to finish, holy shit that was long (not counting Thursday night of learning the basics of the game, with 3 hour training and about 1 and half hour operation) and just waiting for other training on Mondays for specialist role I'm trying to do and to shadow certain people for operations.

"Oi! What's a Horkie"
"I am ya Grot!"

"Horkies were made for two fings foighten' and winnen'" - Horkie Warboss

"That Gritty git doesn't exactly look like a Horkie, but by Gork and Mork it acts like one!"-Random Horkie Boy

For those here that know me know I'm a bit of a nerd. I've dug through the GARBAGE of steam looking for some hidden treasures.

For those that like RPG elements, the brutality and perseverance of dark souls, the landscape and depth of fallout, and some RTS elements/base building, and a pinch of feudal Japan let me introduce you to:

Kenshi

Tons of mod support and it's got SO MUCH depth and things to do. Here's my first 30 hours playing

*started with nothing

*ran away from the city

*killed and immediately eaten by wildlife

*(restart)

*talk to person in bar and recruit to my squad

*run outside

*attacked by fauna

*played dead and avoided getting eaten

*hopped up and ran for the hills

*get attacked on the hills by slavers

*shackled and hauled nearly halfway across the map

*buddy and I get locked in cages

*we pick the locks

*make a mad dash for it. Buddy gets attacked and caught in the escape. My main dude makes it to a nearby town and rests in a tavern to heal

*pick the lock again after healing. Make my escape and nearly die but make it to nearby town. Rest and heal

*buy some supplies and venture fourth

*mine ore and sell for cash

*get building materials and start a small camp site just over the hill for mining spot

*spend a few days mining, selling, recruiting and buying building materials

That's always my go to game for a long time. So many possibilities with that game. Feeling serious, tons of casual squads to join. Just want to dick around, play KotH. Want to screw with people, play Exile. I recently ran out of disk space and noticed that 2/3rds of my SSD is just ARMA3 mods.

Just picked up and played Fallout this weekend. A bit complicated at first, but it does a really good job of using the world of the video games and the quest lines actually worked alot better than expected.

PC: Currently replaying Mass Effect 2 and 3 because who needs feelings, right?PS4: In chapter four of Red Dead Redemption 2 when my PS4 completely shit itself and i lost all of my saves. Really wanna beat the game but I'm not sure if I have the motivation to replay everything just to make up ground.Switch: Super Mario Odyssey. Super fun game. I've been getting a lot of burn out of my Switch recently. It's my favorite thing to bring on a plane. Also: Stardew Valley. It's great when I just want to mentally check out for about 20-30 minutes.

I found TKP after two rails from TOTS then walking back to my apartment and re-watching the 2012 Sugar Bowl. I woke up the next day with this username.

Mass Effect: I played the shit out of the first two. Got ME3 the day it came out, beat it an about 3 weeks, got to the end, said "wtf", replayed the end to choose a different path, said "wtf, it's the exact same thing". only reason I played it again was to see if the "extended cut" was any better. It was, but not good enough to make up for my initial reaction.

The trilogy, minus the last 30 minutes, is probably my favorite video game series of all time. Maybe I'll play through them all again this summer.

I used to love Bioware. Mass Effect 1 and 2 and Dragon Age Origins are among my top-10 favorite games of all time. Since then, though... Dragon Age 2 was a rushed pile of garbage, and feels like less content than the DA:O expansion, Awakening. ME3 was great, until the last hour which (imo) trivialized the entire trilogy. Inquisition is something, they certainly spent a lot of time and effort on it, but it doesn't quite feel like a Dragon Age game to me. I still haven't played Andromeda, but from what I've heard from many people, it's nothing to write home about.

Andromeda is alot of fun in spurts I played it a bunch I really loved Inquisition actually even the multiplayer. My friend group is gonna play it so I'll probably play it since I enjoyed the demos a bunch

Directions from Blacksburg to whoville, go north till you smell it then go east until you step in it

Been commenting on everything else, but haven't made my own list. Right now I'm kind of all over the place.

On Switch, I'm currently playing:
- Mario Odyssey - The wife and I trade off playing as Mario and Cappy, we've already beaten it but we play a bit now and then to get a few more moons
- Let's Go Eevee - I've already beaten it, but I pick it up every week or two to train up and do a few Master Trainer fights
- Smash Ultimate - Still unlocking all the characters, lol
- Overcooked - Interesting game to play with 3-4 people

PS4:
None, because my wife has been monopolizing the PS4 for the last week-plus, ever since KH3 came out, but before that I platinumed all 3 Spyro games.

PS3:
- Kingdom Hearts - Just started it at my wife's behest, since I've never played any of them before.

PC:
- Overwatch - Just started playing in October, and I'm hooked in a way I've never been hooked on a competitive multiplayer game before
- Cities: Skylines - It's like SimCity, but way better.

3DS:
- Ultra Sun - Been working my way through this game for over a year now. I pick it up for a week, make a bit of progress, and then forget about it for a month or two. Fortunately, what little "story" there is is really easy to follow, and the game reminds you of what your current goal is relentlessly.

did you like Lets Go Evee? I've watched my roommate play it, and call me old school, but I'm pretty triggered by it. You see where wild Pokemon are, you don't have to battle wild pokemon, all the NPCs are way too helpful, your "rival" is nice to you, no HM moves. I don't know maybe I'm just too much of a Pokemon purist. I haven't played anything but Rom hacks though recently

To speak to some of your specific points...
Seeing where wild Pokemon are, and don't have to battle wild Pokemon: so? It helps remove some of the "grind" that I've always found annoying about JRPGs in general. A net positive in my book.
All the NPCs are way too helpful, "rival" is too nice: this has been a growing trend over the last decade or so, it's no worse than Gen 6 and Gen 7. Maybe it should bother me more, but I guess it doesn't.
No HM moves: another trend from the last few generations, but the way it was implemented in LGPE was admittedly a bit wonky. Honestly, it also ties back into the first point, it removes some of the "grind" since you don't have to waste one of your 6 party slots carrying around a dedicated HM slave.

Hey, if Nintendo decides to run their online multiplayer through XBL, I'd be fine with that... Switch Online could really use some work. Something tells me that's not going to be the case, it'll probably be a developer's choice as to whether to route theirs through XBL. And I wouldn't be surprised if you still have to have the Switch Online subscription to access XBL on the Switch.

Do you have all of the DLC for all the factions and which one do you play or like the most? I never had a chance to get Warhammer Fantasy models before the old world was destroyed and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar came out (which I'm collecting Khorne Bloodbounde, maybe get some Khorne Deamons, I would have got some Warriors of Chaos if Fantasy was still around).

"Oi! What's a Horkie"
"I am ya Grot!"

"Horkies were made for two fings foighten' and winnen'" - Horkie Warboss

"That Gritty git doesn't exactly look like a Horkie, but by Gork and Mork it acts like one!"-Random Horkie Boy

Dwarves are my favorite(as is the case in most fantasy settings), but Empire and Skaven are tied for a close second. I have all DLC except for Beastmen and Wood Elves, but I may pick them up when they get updated in the future. I was actually a Total War fan long before I knew about Warhammer, but ever since I picked up Warhammer 1 I have been soaking up as much lore as I can get my hands on and hopefully one day I will collect some models.

Dwarves, Wood Elves, and Empire are considered destroyed after the End Times and are called different factions now in Age of Sigmar for Order; Fireslayers and Kharadron Overlords (Dwarves), Free People and Stormcast Eternals (Empire for Free People and Ground Marines/Ultrasmurf Eternals/Sigmarines for Stormcast Eternal), and Sylvaneth (Wood Elves even though now mostly trees).

Skaven are still around in Age of Sigmar with their Diety (The Great Horned Rat) becoming a Chaos God, even though all other Chaos Gods (Khorne, Nurgle, Slaneesh, and Tzeentch) do not think of him as such along with Archeon the Everchosen thinks The Great Horned Rat as worthless (which is hilarious). Also the Skaven accidentally dug a hole between the Chaos Realm and the Mortal Realm.

Beastmen are still around in Age of Sigmar also to spread destruction and chaos in the other realms (as they should) even if Games Workshop do not give them a lot of love like other Chaos factions.

You might be able to get some Fantasy models but there isn't any official Fantasy rules after 8th edition and End Times (which divided the community) but I think 95% have rules in Age of Sigmar.

"Oi! What's a Horkie"
"I am ya Grot!"

"Horkies were made for two fings foighten' and winnen'" - Horkie Warboss

"That Gritty git doesn't exactly look like a Horkie, but by Gork and Mork it acts like one!"-Random Horkie Boy

I have picked up a little AoS lore lately, and the idea of it is starting to grow on me, but with 2 year old twins, the cost and time investment of getting into table top has scared me off a bit. I hope that eventually I can get into it, but for now I am just hoping the next lord pack for TW:W2 brings the Skaven ridiculousness closer to code.

Are we doing lists of games we have invested a shit ton of time in?
Lol let's divide this up by system

Xbox one:
Halo master chief collection (best buy ever, seriously halo 1-4 damn that was fun and really fucking hard on legendary, 1 & 2 looking at you)
Halo 5 (I'm a sucker for halo games plain and simple)
Destiny (awesome until the dlc ruined it, I hate paying for the rest of the game after paying for it once. It was really fun at the beginning)
Destiny 2 (see above)
Star Wars battlefront (fun game, not as good as the ps2 versions)
Star Wars battlefront 2 (parts are really fun but ea really screwed the pooch, google sense of pride and accomplishment)
Ori and the blind forest (gift from a friend and damn this game was super fun)
Assassins creed black flag (this game was amazing if you don't pay attention to the non pirate parts)
Fortnite (honestly this game is just fun, shout to fireman for the battlepass, dude is good people)
Battlefield 1 (the world war 1 bent was really cool)
Kingdom hearts 3 (fantastic game, waaaaay too many cutscenes)

Switch:
Legend of Zelda breath of the wild (this game will just consume you if you let)
Super smash ultimate (world of light was crazy fun)
Mario kart 8 (its Mario kart what's not to like)
Future time waster: pikmin 3 (this game needs to be here already)

Older systems
Xbox 360:
NCAA 2014 (the last one, god bless the good people on the internet for updating the rosters each season)

There are many other games, but these were the first ones to come to mind. Grew up playing snes, 64, GameCube, ps2, and wii. Not to mention handheld gameboy, gameboy color, gameboy advance, ds, and psp.

Words cannot express the amount of joy I felt after beating halo 1 on legendary. There would be periods in that game where I would hit a check point with next to no health then get shot and be stuck in a death loop

At the end of the game's life after Rise of Iron, they started the Age of Triumph which revamped the old raids to bring the gear up to max level and added cool ornaments that made the game the best it probably ever was

Xbox: Fortnite, it's an easy game to play for as short or as long as you want. It's FREE and even my 7 year old can play with me.
Red Dead Redemption: Still trying to figure this game out honestly.
Back in the before kids day played with a group of firefighters from around the country on Call of duty. We as squads couldn't be touched because we all played together and communicated so well and all of us took on different game roles without issue or ego.
Always looking for more games to play with people who will actually play as a team.

I feel like they used this particular game to promote themselves, instead of putting out a quality product. This time around it almost feel super unnecessary to go to almost any Disney themed planet. They pretty much just added "darkness, heartless, etc" to certain parts of their movies, and rolled with it even when it didn't really fit. Don't get me started on the dumb-ass ride themed attacks that Sora and company do. Visually appealing - maybe, but super lame if you ask me. I just... I dunno man. Tin foil hat - but its like Disney saw how huge this was going to be and made it all about Disney.

They don't even have Final Fantasy characters in this one ffs.

Call me a hater, but the more I played the game, and the more I thought about it...I did not enjoy KH3.

Played with Major League off of here and we won a match last night then he had to go and won the next one too. It's crazy how good some players are already. On both squads was a player with hundreds of kills already.

It's definitely easier to win luckily in Apex. I never won a single game in Fortnite. Partly because I only played like once a month, but also because I was straight booty at utilizing the building aspect. That really separated the wheat from the chaff in that game. Apex is much easier for people that simply have FPS experience.

Btw, if anyone hasnt played God of War yet, get out and play it. Its right up there with The Last of Us as the best game ive ever played. It has everything. Incredible combat mechanics, stunning visuals, and honestly a really touching story.

Completely agree. I finally completed it a couple weeks ago. I bought it at launch initially, but never played it. Tragic really. Anyhow, I enjoyed the absolute shit out of this game. They really reinvigorated the franchise.

"The" boat ride back home... And next 15 minutes or so were my favorite gaming moments of 2018.

A few years late, but I just finished Horizon Zero Dawn yesterday. Honestly, might be one of my favorite games of all time. Loved the story, every battle with machines was incredibly satisfying whether you go stealthy or guns blazing (human combat was pretty lackluster) and every 10 minutes of playing I found myself stopping and saying "Wow, this game is beautiful." Probably the first game to really grab me and pull me in since Fallout 3.

Also dumped a whole lot of time into Stardew Valley while on a business trip last week. Sometimes you just need a quite, simple, relaxing game to play.

Horizon is an incredible game. I definitely have it on my list of all time favorites. I downloaded the expansion pack and started from scratch a couple of months ago. I am enjoying it just as much the second time through. It's stunning visually. The story is engaging. The game play mechanics on on point. Just an all around awesome game.

Horizon Zero Dawn has definitely been my favorite game of the last few years. I need more Aloy in my life. With the way the game ended you know Sylens is going to be more trouble. And the other AIs that were unshackled from GAIA are going to have to be dealt with. HZD was set up perfectly for some sequels.

My wife just got a PS4 last year specifically for that game and Uncharted 4 (admittedly way late to the party, but I made the mistake of getting an XBone as my first current-gen console years ago, and the Switch offered way more value than the PS4 as the second major purchase). She loved it, but has been hogging the PS4 so much I've only had a chance to play UC4 and Spyro (she's currently hooked on KH3). Maybe once she's finally done I'll have a chance to play HZD.

And I've been jumping into Cities: Skylines as my de-stress game. Similar level of activity, just a very different goal and aesthetic.

Good calls on both HZD and Stardew Valley. Honestly, HZD was one of the better PS4 games I've played in a very long time. The story, characters, and setting were all fantastic and I've recommended it to everyone. I know you mentioned Fallout 3, and I believe the lead writer of HZD wrote for the Fallout series. Fun Fact? Fun Fact!

I found TKP after two rails from TOTS then walking back to my apartment and re-watching the 2012 Sugar Bowl. I woke up the next day with this username.

Update: So the learning curve has been amusing. This is the first BR game I've played so it took a minute to get used to the concept. My first game I died before finding a gun. My second game I killed a guy with a gun by punching him in the face before I found a gun. I also quickly learned the importance of really paying attention to the guns/ammo I'm picking up. In my fourth game I was full on ammo but didn't realize that most of it didn't even go to my gun. Ran out of ammo mid firefight. Tried to punch. Died.

I feel like my squad either dies quickly or lasts at least 10-15 minutes. I guess that's normal for BR games. Overall I've enjoyed it but it does feel weird playing so many games and never actually winning.

That's pretty standard for BRs. The two strategies are to go somewhere by yourself and methodically gear up or land somewhere hot and hopefully survive the fracas and take all the best loot to prep for the end game.

It's almost unfair how good that guy is at FPS games. I vividly remember his first time playing Rainbow Six Siege and he walks in and aced the other team in all of 7 or 8 shots. The number of games he can be a professional at is unreal.

I was watching Summit1G and TimtheTatMan last night and well both amazingly entertaining and talented, Shroud is in a league of his own.

legit. I have been watching his Apex matches and he's clocking people from a balloon on the other side of the map and blasting them with a sniper in one shot. his aim is ridiculous. Or he'll clear 25 kills with just the wingman.

In this game I'm definitely starting to prefer the latter strategy. If your squad can make it through the early scramble, you know you have a good shot at a win. I've spent many games camping for 18 minutes only to get slaughtered the first time we see someone, which just isn't as fun to me, even if it lets me go deeper into more games than the all or nothing method.

I agree with you and my squads will generally try to drop at Intersteller Relay or Thunderdome as we know there is almost always another team there, we have a pretty good early scramble and comm work so we can usually have the team or two down and they have nicely gathered loot for us.

There also isn't a penalty for losing that way. Queues are so quick, you load back up and are at it again in 2 or 3 minutes.

Having never played a BR game, I feel like the second strategy is best. Either you win the initial skirmish and you're set up well for the rest of the game, or you die and get to start over without waiting 20 minutes or so.

It depends on what your goal is. You get points for surviving in Apex. If you sneak around on the edge of the map, hold choke points with shotguns, and save resources until the last circle or two of play, you can be competitive with tier 2 or even tier 3 equipment.

The second strategy lets you get all the best equipment, but the firefights attract a lot of attention. You are constantly on the move, under fire, and doing your best to loot all the best materials while other teams try to scavenge you. It requires a lot more attention during the entire session because one 10 second lapse as you are looting a defeated enemy can end a 12 or 15 kill streak to a team with only two or three teams because they picked their spot after lurking the whole game.

The gear he speaks of is in the game itself. Tiers (white, blue, purple, gold) refer to how 'good' the loot you get in the battle are. The Apex Crates you open after a game drop random cosmetic items only.

And yeah you get XP from getting kills and from time of survival, as well as some other things like revives and killing the champion for that game (or being the champion). The XP levels you up and gives you Apex Crates.

Your rank (level) has nothing to do with what weapons you find on the map. Everyone has equal opportunity for guns, ammo, armor, etc. Ranking up only gives you the potential to look cooler. Has no effect on your gameplay.

Scoring in Apex gives points for multiple activities. Kills, time survived, revives, killing the kill leader, killing the champion. You can drop, knock a squad out, and die and get fewer points than a team that drops by themselves survives 20 minutes without killing anyone.

When talking tiers, I'm talking more about the meta game. Apex is very transparent about where the loot is the best. It tells you as you enter the area where mid tier and high tier loot is. With the generic progression being standard (white), rare (blue), epic (purple), and legendary (gold), there is a tangible benefit to drop somewhere like Interstellar Relay, Artillery Base, or Thunderdome where there is more high tier loot available so armor and weapons drop that are more useful. The highest tier loot (the Kraeber sniper and the Mastiff shotty) only drop in care packages. There is also a super small chance that legendary versions of standard weapons will drop that have all mod slots preloaded with legendary mods. Teams will drop alongside and fight for this loot more readily.

You could alternatively go somewhere like Wetlands or Two Spines which are just outside of these high loot zones where you could grab quick shottys or nades, wait at a choke point, and surprise the squads coming out that are hopefully low on healing supplies/shield cells. Legends like Gibraltar, Caustic, and Bangalore are particularly good at this play style as they disrupt enemy locations with their ults and control spaces much better than a Wraith or Lifeline for example.

I think I'm rambling at this point, but there are locations where you will statistically be better geared just by fully sweeping the location. This is before we get into benefits like legendary knock shields allowing you to self revive.

I put an embarrassing amount of time in this weekend and haven't really been snake bitten by a game like this for a long while.

I have found a lot of success with Lifeline. Her kit is almost always useful and lets the team funnel her Ult Accelerators so they don't eat up inventory space. Pathfinder seems to be really accessible as well with his grapple hook allowing for much easier map movement and vertical play. Bangalore is on the strong side with smoke grenades for easy cover and a passive that let's her sprint faster under fire, reducing exposure time.

Really haven't found a weak legend yet but their abilities lend themselves to different play styles much more readily than others.

Not a BR game type fan in general. I always felt like if you didn't drop in a highly contested area you spent 30 min collecting and running from the circle just to get killed by a sniper or something equally silly. I thought COD Blackout was a nice feeling BR version. Felt smoother and more intuitive but still didn't keep my interest unless I had a full squad of friends to play with. Apex Legends has been the best of the BR crop, IMO. I've been enjoying watching twitch streams (at work, of course) and the couple hours I played over the weekend were really fun even if I did get worked in half of my games

Aside from a couple online games I played for way too long (WoW), and some I still play even though I shouldn't (here's looking at you Destiny 2), I'm very much a single player, story driven game enthusiast. Games that keep me entertained for more than 40-50 hours are rare, and even if they are much shorter, but I play them over and over again, then they are worth my money. To that end, a list of games I've played the story multiple times over the course of years:

Then PC gaming took over and online games were more frequently played than consoles, and then back to consoles...

Red Dead Redemption (PS3)
Last of Us (PS3 and PS4) (Played through on both systems, probably about 10 times total)
The Witcher 3 (PS4) (Spent over 300 hours in this game)
Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)

I will say, Last of Us, Witcher 3, and Horizon Zero Dawn are my top games of all time. Last of Us, I went back to it so many times because I love the world it built. I am aching to see how the story continues in LoU2. I really hope they continue the story of Horizon Zero Dawn. That was one of the most complete first IPs I've seen since LoU, especially from a team that hadn't done that kind of game before.

What are some games you've played numerous playthroughs? (No counting MP or Gaming as a service type games)

Aside from playing through the HALO and Gears of War games tons of times, I've played through MGS4: Guns of the Patriots eight or so times. It's easily my most played through game that takes more than like 5 or 6 hours to complete. It's a masterpiece. I've played Bioshock 1 & 2 numerous times each as well. I'm currently in the midst of alternating between replays of Final Fantasy VII and Horizon Zero Dawn.

Added a couple of y'all. On my third game of Apex Legends and the learning curve is steep to start. Wish theirs was more options to customize button layout. I enjoy the picking characters and one person picking the landing spot.

Man, the EA servers and XBox Live took a crap for me last night. Tried to get going just on some NBA Live and I couldn't stay logged into XBL for more than 5-10 mins at a time, and EA just completely shit the sheets around 6.

The dust on my PS4 is likely a crime. My new video game has become wield my way through the morass of building new listings on Amazon, fight the monsters that are Seller Support for the prizes I require to advance and then sending off product to see what sells and how fast. Then I use my fun controlling app to measure my days score by sales and dollars.

Amazon may be the most fun game I have ever played and the bank account agrees compared to what the other games cost.

Seriously though, I really do need to find some time to get back to playing something sometime soon. Once I get through these next 150 listings or so I should have some time.

Don't know if anyone is interested but the Overwatch League Season 2 started this week with Thursday being the first day of matches and Sunday being the last day each week (first match starts at 1900 Thursday and Friday while it starts at 1500 Saturdays and Sundays).
Here is the Twitch Live stream link for the matches: http://www.twitch.tv/overwatchleague

"Oi! What's a Horkie"
"I am ya Grot!"

"Horkies were made for two fings foighten' and winnen'" - Horkie Warboss

"That Gritty git doesn't exactly look like a Horkie, but by Gork and Mork it acts like one!"-Random Horkie Boy

First three games went to map 5 which made it really good, I missed the first one and most of the second one because ARMA 3 Mod Training but at least I got to see Philly win in Map 5. Philly should have a good season but I can see Atlanta being Top 5 after beating London earlier this week and giving Philly a tough match.

"Oi! What's a Horkie"
"I am ya Grot!"

"Horkies were made for two fings foighten' and winnen'" - Horkie Warboss

"That Gritty git doesn't exactly look like a Horkie, but by Gork and Mork it acts like one!"-Random Horkie Boy

Unfortunately, Rockstar is pretty well known for not doing remasters or remakes of their previous games. Sure GTA V came out for Gen 3 and 4, but that had more to do with its release being so late in the 360/PS3 cycle.

Frankly, I would be happy enough with an RDR2 Undead Nightmare DLC using the the full map.

It's funny because within the last week, I started AC: Origins for the first time too after playing through almost the entire catalogue. It's been fun but a huge break with the series and I really don't know if open world was the right move for it. May just be I'm only level 12 but it feels a lot less structured than previous AC games.

Got an hour of Anthem in before work this morning. A lot of my issues from the demo have already been fixed. The story is already better than anything Destiny ever gave us (and I'm a recovering Destiny addict).

I know there are complaints about the end game and whatnot but I feel like that's par for the course for live service looter shooters. The gameplay is already fantastic and crisp and it looks great.

I feel like that's par for the course for live service looter shooters.

Ehhh, I haven't played Anthem so take this with a massive grain of salt. Anthem has launched with 3 strongholds. Yes, there are various difficulties, but base Destiny 2 launched with 5 strikes, the best analogue I can give, and a raid. They also had a PvP system that admittedly had some flaws, but there was PvP to pass the time during PvE content drought.

I think Anthem needed more time to cook, more content, more ideas put in, not this drip feed of activities releasing monthly. I know looter shooters are inherently grindy, but the same 3 activities on repeat plus free play is not a $60 game to me. I may check it out when prices drop and 2 or 3 DLCs have dropped.

I'm ecstatic at the lack of PvP. That's like my primary issue with Destiny. Too many sacrifices to PvE content to cater to PvP, and vice versa.

Also Destiny 2 launched with some odd goal of making it VERY accessible to everyone. It was so dumbed down. The number of activities might have been okay, but the looter part was gone. That right there is the end game for a looter shooter. I'd argue Destiny 2 launched with even less end game than Destiny 1, and from reports Anthem as well.

Edit: also disclaimer that I'm obviously one of the suckers who stuck with Destiny from the very beginning so I'm obviously one of the people who doesn't mind waiting for the devs to make it right. Diablo III was much the same way (sidebar, Anthem is more aptly compared to Diablo than anything else in my book). I know a lot of people want polished products ala God of War on release, but I'm kind of a sucker for these types that have constant content trickles to keep me engaged. Helps in this case that all DLC is going to be free for Anthem.